Interesting Combination

Am I the only one who thinks this is funny?

Either this is wrong or I'm an idiot...

Guess which one I'm hoping for.


Okay, so here's a puzzle from my IQ calendar:


M..A...N
O...A...L
L....Z...?

Which letter should replace the question mark?



Are you thinking? Are you trying to figure this out? Cuz I sure did. I finally gave up and looked at the solution, which reads:


W. This is determined by the position of the letters in the alphabet (A=1, B=2, etc). The letter from the first column is added to that of the third column to dertermine the letter in the second column. So L(12)+N(14)=Z(26)


That would be lovely if L, N and Z were on the same row, which they are not. Or if you could add W(23) to ANY letter in the above equation to get the value of any other letter, let alone limiting your choices to some first column number added to W to equal some second column number.

Did they make a mistake or am I missing something here?

Seriously. I need to know. If I hadn't already thrown the box away I'd be on the phone to this company right now. I don't mind when I can't figure out a problem because my brain still gets a work out and I learn something from the solution. (I wish I'd saved the penny one for you.) But this is just driving me batty.

B.A.T.T.Y.

Help!!!!

Big, Big, BIG Numbers

My one-a-day calendar for this year is an IQ Puzzles calendar. I decided I need to challenge my brain on a more regular basis and this seemed a good way to do it. Some of the puzzles are easy, some are a fun challenge, and some are downright impossible.

Okay, not impossible. Just hard enough that I give up and look at the answers on the back.

The January 6 puzzle is meant to be a math puzzle, but I didn't even try to solve it since it felt more like a trivia question to me. You know, an interesting fact.

For those of you who like math enough to tackle this kind of problem, I'll give you the question and let you scroll a bit for the answer:

You have someone counting a billion dollars for you and he counts a dollar per second. He works eight hours a day and takes four weeks holiday. How long will this person be counting?

(Insert Jeopary music here...)

Answer: If this person works five days a week, 48 weeks a year, he will be counting 144 years, 248 days and 1.6 hours.

That's a really, really, really long time.

It kinda gives new weight to the number "one billion" - something we hear tossed around so much that I think we get numb to it. Like gratuitous violence in movies and soft-core porn in our commercials. How many of us really grasp the implications of one billion of anything?

Especially in the following context:

As of January 15, 2010 the United States National Debt is

twelve trillion dollars.

Trillion, not billion. There are one thousand billions in one trillion. And we've got 12 trillion in debt.

If I'm doing my math correctly (feel free to check me, since it's highly likely I'm not) that little dollar counting fellow would be counting our national debt for roughly

1 million 736 thousand 160 YEARS!

That can't be good.

Old Apache Trail

We did it! We drove the Old Apache Trail on Saturday!

We grabbed some lunch for the kids and headed out about 12:30. When the kids asked me how long we'd be gone, I said a couple of hours. Brian said four. I thought he was nuts. No way was that drive going to take four hours. And I was right.

It took five.

LOL! But we had a great time.

It was a wee bit cold up here. Well, to us anyway. The fellow who so kindly took this picture for us was visiting from Wisconsin and he described the weather as "quite warm."

I loved how the rock hung over the road.

We drove all the way up to the dam.

I seem to remember driving over this dam when I was a kid. Traffic goes over the bridge now, but that was a change made before Sept 11 because they wanted to raise the height of the dam to protect against floods.

I wish I would've taken some pictures of the kids in the visitor's center. It was small but it was cool. Everyone enjoyed it.

At this point we could've gone home via Payson or Globe and we opted for Globe. Shortly after headed down that highway we passed a sign for cliff dwellings. Oh man. I love stuff like that!!

Unfortunately we got there just after the visitor's center closed and we were all too tired to go on a hike. But do you see that little white dot at the bottom of the ruins? That's a guy!

Guess what my next 2010 goal is???

The Last New Year

I love that song by Tim McGraw, "Live Like You Were Dying."


He said I was in my early forties, with a lot of life before me
And one moment came that stopped me on a dime
I spent most of the next days, looking at the x-rays
Talking bout' the options and talking bout' sweet times.
I asked him when it sank in, that this might really be the real end
How's it hit 'cha when you get that kind of news?
Man what did ya do?
He said

I went skydiving
I went rocky mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chew
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denyin'
And he said some day I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'

He said I was finally the husband, that most the time I wasn't
And I became a friend, a friend would like to have
And all of a sudden goin' fishin, wasn't such an imposition
And I went three times that year I lost my dad
Well I finally read the good book, and I took a good long hard look
At what I'd do if I could do it all again
And then

I went skydiving
I went rocky mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denyin'
And he said some day I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'

Every time I hear this song I find myself wondering, "What would I do if I knew I was dying?" (Well, dying much sooner than planned, that is.)

I don't think there's any way to really know what you would do unless you're in that situation, but I like the message of the song. It got me thinking about stuff I'd like to do before I die, priorities I'd like to keep straight once and for all, dreams I'd like to chase, and relationships I'd like to nourish better.

If this were my last New Year's Eve, and I knew that, what changes would I make? What current obstacles would cease to be obstacles? What current projects would fall off the map?

It's been interesting to think about, and a little disheartening that some obstacles really are obstacles.


No matter how you slice it, I do not have the means to travel to Italy. *sigh* Nor do I have control over whether or not I become a bestselling author. *double sigh*

But.



I can decide to see more of the interesting things here in my own backyard. Brian and I have yet to drive the Old Apache Trail even though we've been talking about it for months. It's supposed to be a pretty drive, and I'd like to see it.



I can continue to work on my writing goals and I can take comfort in the fact that I have jumped into that publishing arena, even if I haven't published yet. It took a lot of courage for me to write and submit a book to bona fide New York agents. Sometime in 2010, I'll tackle that goal once again.

As for the people who matter to me, I'd like to take better care of those relationships. That's not a new goal. But I think I can do better. So I'll just have to keep working on that and accept the fact that I'll never be the perfect mother, wife, daughter, sister, or friend. But being perfect isn't the goal, so I guess I'm okay there.

Love deeper. Speak sweeter.

And go to Italy.

What would you do?

Merry Christmas

Is it Raining?

Hail yes.

Pa-rum-pa-pum-pum

Here's my little drummer boy at his first band concert.

He's a percussionist, which means he has several different instruments to learn. The funnest (in my opinion) is the snare drum. I thought it was awesome that he got to play the snare drum for First Concert March. Here's the opening section:

I know I'm prejudiced, but I thought he did great. It was so fun to watch him. He wasn't nervous at all, but just went up there and had a good time.

Way to go John!

Girls' Weekend

These are some pictures from our most recent Girls' Weekend, again here in Scottsdale. I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do (in fact a few of these aren't even mine), and for the first time I don't have a life-changing story to tell (LOL). But it was a good time. I do love these ladies.

And here's proof that my crock pot was in the most unlikely of places:

Polly's tattoo studio.

Her appointment was actually the reason for the trip.

It turns out this is the coolest tattoo studio I've ever been in. Okay, okay, I've only been in two, but still. Check out the mosaics on the walls.

This is a marble sculpture by Polly's artist.

This was sculpted from 400 lbs of Italian marble taken (if I remember correctly) from one of the quarries favored by Michelangelo. (Click here to see pics of the work in progress.) Paulo's actually working on a Pieta which someone commissioned him to create. I'd love to see it when it's done.

Well, I think would. If he's somehow incorporated skulls into it, then maybe I'd rather not. ;)

While we were there, Lynn got hers touched up.

I was tempted to get mine touched up too. (Har har.)

Turns out the guy did not do quite what Lynn wanted him to do, so in spite of her swearing she's never going through all that pain again she had to change her mind once she saw the changes he made. Poor Lynn!

Naturally, we had to have dinner at our favorite restaurant:

(I have a feeling our Fleming's days are over though. Sigh.)

Leean and Lynn ready to go see Rock Lobster:

Polly was still fighting a cold and decided to stay at the hotel. Since 9:30 is late for me anymore I was pretty sure I couldn't handle being out till 3 am. Plus I had to teach in church the next day, so I headed home as well.




It felt like a short trip, but it was good to see Lynn and Polly again and meet their friend Leean. They'll be back in May, which means lots and lots of swimming. Yeah baby!

Here We Go Again

After three months of no episodes, I forgot all about the issues with Christopher's heart. (Click here and here and here if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

Well, on November 30 I'm cooking dinner and Chris comes in all cheerful like and says, "My heart's beating fast!"

Oh, right! It took me a second to get my wits about me and grab a timer so I could finally get a pulse on these babies. I set the timer for ten seconds, put my ear to his chest, and counted.

It was hard to keep up.

I counted 45 beats in 10 seconds, though I may have missed one or two. Anyway, that's a pulse of 270.

That's kinda high.

By the time I did my calculations and wrote that number down the episode was over. I went online to see if I could find anything about that kind of pulse. Reading through the articles about WPW Syndrome and all the symptoms kids can have while they're having an episode reminded me I'm supposed to ask him if he feels any pain in his chest.

So I ask Chris, "Did your chest hurt?"

Chris: "Yes."

But he hadn't been acting like he was in pain, so I said, "Did it hurt or did it feel funny?"

Chris: "It felt funny."

Hmmm. "Did it feel funny or did it hurt?"

Chris: "It hurt."

Okay.

Through all this though, he keeps running his finger up his breastbone to indicate where he felt... something. He said, "Almost up to here" indicating the hollow of his throat.

I tried a different word. "Did it feel like pressure?" Brian then puts his thumb on Christopher's shoulder and presses on it. "Did it feel like that?"

Again, Chris says yes and again runs his finger up his breastbone and says, "almost to here." Okay, I know my child well enough to know that he definitely felt something, but he just doesn't know the word to use.

.

Another common symptom is dizzyness, lightheadedness, etc so I asked Chris about his head and he said that all felt fine. Good enough.

I called the doctor to give them the long-awaited pulse and they want to see him. End result?

.

Chris is now on heart medication, which we cut in half so he can take part in the morning and part at night. The doctor isn't crazy about that pulse. Nor does he like whatever it is Chris is feeling in his chest, so he wants to suppress the episodes. Chris will take this medication for 6 months to a year, then we'll take him off it and see how he does. The idea is to see if he'll grow out of it on his own, something I'm willing to try if that spares him the surgery.

The funnest part was when the doctor told me that if these episodes get up to 15 minutes, we have to take him to the ER so they can stop it.

The next funnest part was making sure anybody who's ever in charge of Chris when we're not around knows about this.

Maybe "fun" isn't the right word.

But you know, even though I did allow myself the time I needed to feel my emotions about all this, it wasn't that bad because it wasn't that hard to keep things in perspective. Here's why.

.

The first time we saw this doctor, we went to his Mesa office. This time we had to go to his office in Phoenix, just for scheduling reasons. This office is on the campus of Phoenix Children's Hospital.

I literally cannot drive by there, or even think about that place, without thinking of all the little munchkins in there who are seriously, seriously, seriously ill.

So while it may not have been "fun" to walk my little five-year-old into the office of a pediatric cardiologist, knowing full well that 270 is not a number anyone wants to see, it really was easy to remember that it could be a whole lot worse.

At first, I wasn't crazy about the extra long drive. By the time I was done parking my car, I was grateful for it. The next appointment (in January) will be there too.

That's fine by me.

Can I share a little superstitious thought? I don't know why but I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Phoenix Children's hospital, even before someone I knew (one of my YW) had surgery there. It's just such an amazing place and I think anyone who takes such good care of kids in need deserves about a bazillion brownie points to get into heaven.

Here's my superstitious thought: I hope that soft spot in my heart isn't because my Christopher will be there some day.

There, I said it.

Thoughts like that have less power when you shine a light on them.

Right?

.

Anyway, the night after Chris started the medication he had an episode that was so short it was over before he could tell us it had started. Same thing the next night. Nothing since then, which has been almost a week. I figure the medicine is doing it's job, so hooray for that. We'll just have to wait and see where we go from here.

.

Fortunately Chris isn't freaked out by any of this. He's such an easy-going, happy kid. And the way he giggles when they put the "stickers" on him for his EKG really is too cute. As for me, I just try not to think about it too much. I don't know what's going to happen next, but I know he's going to be fine. That's all that matters to me.

Sin City... Without the Sin

Several weeks ago Brian had a business meeting in Las Vegas (of all places) and I decided to go with him. We drove up one day and back the next so we didn't have a lot of tourist-y time, but we did make a few stops. I'm okay that it was just a few. I haven't been to Vegas since I was a kid and I say the name "Sin City" is well earned. We didn't even so much as drive down the Strip, but there were plenty of things I saw I wished I hadn't.

So it was a bit of a relief when we passed through the gates on the grounds of the Las Vegas Temple. It truly felt like a refuge.













The grounds were absolutely gorgeous.

And kudos to Anna for correctly guessing the location of my most recent foot shot. How could you not walk on grass this green?


I told Brian this was the only ground in Las Vegas I was willing to touch with my bare feet.



One of these days I'll come up with a more interesting angle for these shots. In the meantime, I get to add one more state to my foot list.

We also paid a visit to an attraction I wouldn't have expected in Vegas:




The first permanent settlement in the Vegas valley was by 30 Latter-Day Saints who were sent to establish a fort on the route between California and Utah, and preach the gospel to the local natives. In fact, it was earlier Spanish explorers who called the area Las Vegas, which meant The Meadows.

At that time, the area was lush and green, fed by a natural spring that's long since been diverted to supply water to the area's growing population.

The grounds of this historical site include what's left of the adobe residence hall, a recreation of part of the fort's walls, a modest visitor's center, and an artificial stream that barely suggests Las Vegas's greener days.

The residence hall is filled with displays outlying the areas history, and plenty of interesting artifacts.

My favorite was this contraption used to separate corn from the cob.

On the grounds is an old freight wagon, which was restored by an Eagle Scout.

This handcart inside the residence hall was restored by an Eagle Scout too.

We learned in the visitor's center that scouts can earn one of their merit badges here, doing activities such as making bricks the old fashioned way. We saw the area where they do this, but I didn't take any pictures.

Even though this is called the Mormon Fort, the venture was abandoned by the Mormons for various reasons after just two years. Others took over the building, however, and the foundation for a growing city was laid. Am I the only one who thinks it's ironic that Sin City got it's start with the Mormons? LOL.

And that, my friends, is how you do Sin City... without the sin.